The latest non-work trip is in the works with flights booked! Driven initially by a great air deal, I am heading out for Quito, Ecuador for 12 days with two good friends. March 19th-31st are the dates.
Our flight from Dulles to Quito goes through Panama City and we have an 8 hour layover. Looks like we will be able to get out for a few hours and quickly explore Panama before heading to Ecuador. Once we are in Ecuador, the only thing booked so far is three nights in Quito at a nice hostel in the Old Town.
Post Quito, plans look like going southeast to Peru and checking out some remote rain forest and jungle areas, including Incan ruins. Beach time will also come in to play on the north-western coast of Peru on our way back up to Ecuador. Of course we originally wanted to make it to Lima and then down to Machu Picchu, but that is just too ambitous for this trip. We would have to spend many days and nights on the bus and we want to make sure we have the time to enjoy the many sights of Ecuador and Northern Peru.
We are also trying to see if it is realistic to maybe spend a night in Colombia since it is not far off from Quito.
Much more to come...incredibly excited about this!
Karl
miércoles, 6 de febrero de 2008
Spain Trip Day 9 - Granada and Beyond
I never finished this post and I just now found it on my laptop some 4 months later. So I am going to post it as is! Enjoy!
Hola! It has been more than a few days since my last post so I wanted to take a couple of minutes and type up some of our exciting experiences from the last two cities. Currently, I am sitting at our gate in the Granada Airport. We spent two nights in Cadiz and then two nights here in Granada and are about to board a quick flight to Barcelona. The train ride from Granada to Barcelona is roughly 11 hours. No thanks, I think we can handle the hour flight. Interestingly enough, out tickets for this flight were very cheap and much cheaper than the train ride would have been. Might have been a Spanair special we lucked out with.
So much to talk about since I last wrote, and organizing my thoughts has never been a skill of mine. So please bear with me as this may be more of a sporadic brain dump than an organized travel journal. Let’s start with what has impressed me about Spain. I kind of expected a country like Italy, one that was borderline third-world and lacked significant infrastructure or law enforcement. Not sure why, but I did. Perhaps I also somehow made a connection between Mexico and Spain simply because of the language, but this is definitely no Mexico! Spain’s infrastructure and government services could easily rival those of the US on many levels – at least those that are visible to tourists like us. In every city we have visited and at all hours of the day, there is always someone cleaning something. The streets are swept and washed several times a day, the beach is combed for trash every morning, the bushes and trees in the towns are trimmed frequently. The trains and train stations are very modern and the bus system is amazing with what seems to be all brand new and efficient busses. Policia are visible in every city and tourist information booths are readily available when needed. Now when it comes to driving, I don’t think there is any enforcement at all. Anyone can do anything at anytime on the roads. But overall, I have definitely been impressed with the services that the city and regional governments provide. I of course have no idea how much they pay in taxes though, or what the everyday residents see that we tourists do not.
Let’s get back to where we have been recently. After my last post, we pulled into the train station in Cadiz, a much smaller station than that of Madrid or Sevilla, which made it quick and easy to get outside and grab a taxi. As we have in most cities, we walked up to the taxi driver and showed him a printout of the hotel’s information and off we went. The research we did on each city and their hotel locations has proved to be very beneficial as our hotels are always right in the middle of everything and only a short distance from the train stations. Our Cadiz hotel was the same, only a 6 euro ride away and right smack on the main beach boulevard of Playa Victoria. We walked into the Tryp La Caleta, settled into our room and then decided to go hunting for lunch. As we have come to expect, the streets around the hotels are lined with restaurants and cafés, so deciding where to eat is a bit of a guessing game. We chose an Italian place called Mamma Mia right across from the beach. An hour and a half later, a normal lunch duration unfortunately, we were ready to get in some beach time (oh, with a quick nap of course in between).
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I expected the beach to be mostly empty. At most beaches in the US, prime time is around 11 – 2 or so. It is the heat of the today and the best time to catch some sun. But the beaches here do not have people on them until after 3, and they become immediately packed. They stay packed with sunbathers, some deciding to not wear tops, until almost 7 at night. We got a little bit of sun and took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, dodging little kids as we made our way into the water. Cadiz is obviously the beach destination of the locals, leaving Malaga to the east for the foreigners. That was fine with us though, it is always good to experience the culture more than the tourists. That night, we were delighted to find a vast array of vendors setup on the boardwalk selling everything from pirated DVDs to sunglasses and jewelry. We didn’t end up buying anything as it was mostly very cheaply made stuff, but it was interesting to see all of the available goods. Almost all of the vendors were African as well and some had items from North Africa, which interest me more than the Spanish stuff. After all, we were only a few hours away by boat from Africa.
The following day, we ventured into the old town via the local bus. There were not any major must see sites of Cadiz that we knew of, but the old town in general was definitely worth a long walk around it. Which is what we did, walking from one end, where fishing boats were tied up on the shores of the Atlantic, to the other end, where a large and longstanding rock wall protected the city from the bay. The town had amazing gardens and walkways around its edge, proving to be as picturesque as anything we had seen to date with the bright blue ocean and bay as its backdrop. It was also easy to see the Muslim influences on the city in the architecture, especially when we spotted the bright gold dome of what had to have been a mosque in the city center.
The next day we were off for our fourth Spanish destination, Granada. We actually knew very little about Granada and had not spent much time reading up on it. All we knew is that we had to spend over 4 hours on the slow trains to get there, as we had to retrace our steps back to Sevilla and then transfer to a train to the Granada station. I was extremely tempted to ditch the whole train thing for a rental car though. I was excited about trying to get down the coast a little further to the Straits of Gibraltar and possibly even catch a glimpse of Morocco from the shore. But same day, one way rental car prices were insane unfortunately. So back to the train we went. With our free time on the train, we were finally able to read up in our books about Granada and everything it had to offer. Our interest in the city and its sights grew with every page we read, and by the time we got there we couldn’t wait to check it out! It was the last Muslim kingdom in Spain to fall to the Christians and was the most coveted territory in Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella finally took Granada and united all of their now Christian territories into modern day Spain. They also made it their home, as well as their final resting place.
Our first night in the city was pretty uneventful really, mostly just many walks around the old town to see what we could find. And of course a few cafes occupied some of our time. In search of some not so Spanish cuisine, we set out on foot to find an Italian restaurant about 10 blocks away that we had read about. It was about 10pm and we walked through some pretty small alleys, so we were a bit on edge. We never even found the Italian place, but we did stumble upon a Mexican joint! It was the first Mexican restaurant I had seen in Spain so we just had to try it. The atmosphere really was pretty authentic but the food was interesting. Jackie thoroughly enjoyed her margarita though, so all was ok. Outside the restaurant was an internet and phone café so I was able to make a few calls back home for only about 10 cents a minute. Seriously better than the 4-5 euros per minute the hotels charge. But we still can’t get this staying out all night thing down very well and went back to get some sleep around midnight.
We got up, much later than intended, the next morning and caught the public bus up the mountain to Alhambra. Alhambra is a simply amazing Muslim palace atop the hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, overlooking Granada. Our books say it is actually the second most visited site in all of Europe, and we had no idea it was even there until we read up about it on the train ride. We waited in the ticket line for about 30 minutes along with several hundred other people to find out that they had sold out for the day. They only sell so many tickets each day unfortunately. Knowing this was our only day to try and see it, this was a pretty big bummer. But they said they were still offering garden tickets and, even though we were not sure what that meant, we went for them. Boy are we glad we did! What an incredible little self guided tour we had of well trimmed gardens, elaborate fountains, palace building and breathtaking views of the city from up above. I can only imagine what the actual palace must have been like, but we were perfectly happy with what we got to see and do outside of it.
Hola! It has been more than a few days since my last post so I wanted to take a couple of minutes and type up some of our exciting experiences from the last two cities. Currently, I am sitting at our gate in the Granada Airport. We spent two nights in Cadiz and then two nights here in Granada and are about to board a quick flight to Barcelona. The train ride from Granada to Barcelona is roughly 11 hours. No thanks, I think we can handle the hour flight. Interestingly enough, out tickets for this flight were very cheap and much cheaper than the train ride would have been. Might have been a Spanair special we lucked out with.
So much to talk about since I last wrote, and organizing my thoughts has never been a skill of mine. So please bear with me as this may be more of a sporadic brain dump than an organized travel journal. Let’s start with what has impressed me about Spain. I kind of expected a country like Italy, one that was borderline third-world and lacked significant infrastructure or law enforcement. Not sure why, but I did. Perhaps I also somehow made a connection between Mexico and Spain simply because of the language, but this is definitely no Mexico! Spain’s infrastructure and government services could easily rival those of the US on many levels – at least those that are visible to tourists like us. In every city we have visited and at all hours of the day, there is always someone cleaning something. The streets are swept and washed several times a day, the beach is combed for trash every morning, the bushes and trees in the towns are trimmed frequently. The trains and train stations are very modern and the bus system is amazing with what seems to be all brand new and efficient busses. Policia are visible in every city and tourist information booths are readily available when needed. Now when it comes to driving, I don’t think there is any enforcement at all. Anyone can do anything at anytime on the roads. But overall, I have definitely been impressed with the services that the city and regional governments provide. I of course have no idea how much they pay in taxes though, or what the everyday residents see that we tourists do not.
Let’s get back to where we have been recently. After my last post, we pulled into the train station in Cadiz, a much smaller station than that of Madrid or Sevilla, which made it quick and easy to get outside and grab a taxi. As we have in most cities, we walked up to the taxi driver and showed him a printout of the hotel’s information and off we went. The research we did on each city and their hotel locations has proved to be very beneficial as our hotels are always right in the middle of everything and only a short distance from the train stations. Our Cadiz hotel was the same, only a 6 euro ride away and right smack on the main beach boulevard of Playa Victoria. We walked into the Tryp La Caleta, settled into our room and then decided to go hunting for lunch. As we have come to expect, the streets around the hotels are lined with restaurants and cafés, so deciding where to eat is a bit of a guessing game. We chose an Italian place called Mamma Mia right across from the beach. An hour and a half later, a normal lunch duration unfortunately, we were ready to get in some beach time (oh, with a quick nap of course in between).
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon and I expected the beach to be mostly empty. At most beaches in the US, prime time is around 11 – 2 or so. It is the heat of the today and the best time to catch some sun. But the beaches here do not have people on them until after 3, and they become immediately packed. They stay packed with sunbathers, some deciding to not wear tops, until almost 7 at night. We got a little bit of sun and took a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, dodging little kids as we made our way into the water. Cadiz is obviously the beach destination of the locals, leaving Malaga to the east for the foreigners. That was fine with us though, it is always good to experience the culture more than the tourists. That night, we were delighted to find a vast array of vendors setup on the boardwalk selling everything from pirated DVDs to sunglasses and jewelry. We didn’t end up buying anything as it was mostly very cheaply made stuff, but it was interesting to see all of the available goods. Almost all of the vendors were African as well and some had items from North Africa, which interest me more than the Spanish stuff. After all, we were only a few hours away by boat from Africa.
The following day, we ventured into the old town via the local bus. There were not any major must see sites of Cadiz that we knew of, but the old town in general was definitely worth a long walk around it. Which is what we did, walking from one end, where fishing boats were tied up on the shores of the Atlantic, to the other end, where a large and longstanding rock wall protected the city from the bay. The town had amazing gardens and walkways around its edge, proving to be as picturesque as anything we had seen to date with the bright blue ocean and bay as its backdrop. It was also easy to see the Muslim influences on the city in the architecture, especially when we spotted the bright gold dome of what had to have been a mosque in the city center.
The next day we were off for our fourth Spanish destination, Granada. We actually knew very little about Granada and had not spent much time reading up on it. All we knew is that we had to spend over 4 hours on the slow trains to get there, as we had to retrace our steps back to Sevilla and then transfer to a train to the Granada station. I was extremely tempted to ditch the whole train thing for a rental car though. I was excited about trying to get down the coast a little further to the Straits of Gibraltar and possibly even catch a glimpse of Morocco from the shore. But same day, one way rental car prices were insane unfortunately. So back to the train we went. With our free time on the train, we were finally able to read up in our books about Granada and everything it had to offer. Our interest in the city and its sights grew with every page we read, and by the time we got there we couldn’t wait to check it out! It was the last Muslim kingdom in Spain to fall to the Christians and was the most coveted territory in Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella finally took Granada and united all of their now Christian territories into modern day Spain. They also made it their home, as well as their final resting place.
Our first night in the city was pretty uneventful really, mostly just many walks around the old town to see what we could find. And of course a few cafes occupied some of our time. In search of some not so Spanish cuisine, we set out on foot to find an Italian restaurant about 10 blocks away that we had read about. It was about 10pm and we walked through some pretty small alleys, so we were a bit on edge. We never even found the Italian place, but we did stumble upon a Mexican joint! It was the first Mexican restaurant I had seen in Spain so we just had to try it. The atmosphere really was pretty authentic but the food was interesting. Jackie thoroughly enjoyed her margarita though, so all was ok. Outside the restaurant was an internet and phone café so I was able to make a few calls back home for only about 10 cents a minute. Seriously better than the 4-5 euros per minute the hotels charge. But we still can’t get this staying out all night thing down very well and went back to get some sleep around midnight.
We got up, much later than intended, the next morning and caught the public bus up the mountain to Alhambra. Alhambra is a simply amazing Muslim palace atop the hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, overlooking Granada. Our books say it is actually the second most visited site in all of Europe, and we had no idea it was even there until we read up about it on the train ride. We waited in the ticket line for about 30 minutes along with several hundred other people to find out that they had sold out for the day. They only sell so many tickets each day unfortunately. Knowing this was our only day to try and see it, this was a pretty big bummer. But they said they were still offering garden tickets and, even though we were not sure what that meant, we went for them. Boy are we glad we did! What an incredible little self guided tour we had of well trimmed gardens, elaborate fountains, palace building and breathtaking views of the city from up above. I can only imagine what the actual palace must have been like, but we were perfectly happy with what we got to see and do outside of it.
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